Cookies have been a staple in the digital advertising ecosystem, whereever you went they would follow. The idea of a cookie fundamentally makes sense, but when actually looking deeper into what its purpose is that is when the water gets murky. The Guardian defines cookies as “small bits of text that are downloaded to your browser as you surf the web. Their purpose is to carry bits of useful information about your interaction with the website that sets them.” The way they put it makes it seem much more beneficial than it really is. Truthfully a cookie is a half backed (pun intended) tracker that advertisers use help potentially target a specific audience. I believe it is a flawed system going from cookies tracking to the actual 3rd party targeting of a campaign due to the opaqueness of it.
One reason I am so pessimistic of cookies is let’s say you have a cold and start looking at different site for symptoms, home remedies and OTC medicine. Yes you might be grouped as someone that is sick, but also can easily be bucketed as a healthcare professional because of your browser history. From there advertising agencies are asked to targeted health care professionals and more of the times just search in DMPs to find cheap segments with massive scale. There is no accountability and that is why I am happy of the trashing of Cookies and on to FLoC.